"Caligari,
however
edited, is
still a powerhouse of a horror film, a
significant breakthrough in
style
and in expression: a poetical vision."

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

This is a must see film for historical reasons or if
you
are a film
buff. Its cinematic influence is tremendous on so many
great directors
that range from Fritz Lang to Billy Wilder. Its
foreboding story and
unique
set designs (by artists Walter Reimann, Walter
Röhrig, and art
designer
Hermann Warm) made for a strangely effective visual
experience. Black
paint
was used to represent the shadows that were painted on
the cardboard
scenery
of crooked buildings. As a result of WW1 the post-war
Germany economy
was
in a deplorable state and the studio only had one
light to use, which
couldn't
light the entire set adequately. So they improvised
and used the eerie
style of German expressionism to its best advantage.

This unique film influenced the genres of horror,
children's fairy
tales, and crime films from the '20s - '50s, and by
using the same
style
of lighting and dark mood as these mystery stories
they became known as
noir after WW11.

The story begins with the menacing appearance of the
tiny
Dr. Caligari
(Werner Krauss-he remained in Nazi Germany and later
on played the
anti-Semite
in "Jud Suss") going to town hall to get
a permit to open
a booth at the local fair with his somnambulist act.
The painted set of
the town hall shows all the buildings cramped together
and on an angle
with narrow passages, low ceilings, gray and black
shadows covering the
white walls, and the clerks sitting way up on very
elongated stools.
The
clerks react to the mad looking Dr. Caligari by
laughing at him, but he
is persistent until he finally succeeds in getting his
permit.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the story of
murder
and intrigue
set in the small German town of Holstenwall. Francis
(Friedric Feher),
the narrator, acts as the supposed voice of reason,
explaining to the
viewer
what really happened. He relates his horror story to
an older,
skeptical
man, as they are sitting on a park bench.

Francis is the young lover of Jane (Lil Dagover),
the same
sweet
girl his best friend Alan (Hans Heinrich) is pursuing
in a friendly
rivalry.
Jane and Alan attended the carnival together and Alan
made the fatal
mistake
of asking the somnambulist Cesare (Conrad Veidt) -- a
thin, gauntly
ashen
man, who is under the charge of Dr. Caligari -- "How
long do I have to
live?" and is shocked when Cesare responds, "Until
dawn."

True enough before the next day begins, Alan is seen
through the
shadows being knifed to death. He is the second murder
victim
discovered.
The town clerk was also killed on the day Dr. Caligari
arrived. Francis
reports his suspicions to the police that it is Dr.
Caligari behind
these
killings, but the police soon pick up a criminal
(Rudolf) who is about
to knife an old lady and charge him with all the
murders, even though,
he admits only to the attempted murder but not to the
other two
killings.

Meanwhile, Jane's old man (Lettinger) has
disappeared and
she goes
to the carnival looking for him. She meets Dr.
Caligari there and he
shows
off to her Cesare sleeping like a zombie in his
cabinet. Jane gets bad
feelings about these two characters, as Dr. Caligari
ogles her. So, she
leaves.

This seemingly simple murder plot of a crazed
medieval-type
of Svengali
who orders his somnambulist to do his killings, is
much more complex
than
that. That is one of the reasons this film has meant
so much to so many
different people at different time periods. A case can
be made for it
as
an example of what happened to the collective German
psyche after the
first
World War and how the degenerate ideals of Nazism
seeped into the
German
psyche.

The simple explanation for the film's success, a
success
that is
hard to deny, is that the subversive story is an
allegory for an evil
government
(Dr. Caligari) that brainwashes its people (Cesare) to
commit crimes it
wants carried out. By its odd style, accented
mannerisms, all the
actors
wearing grotesque makeup and acting in a formal stagy
manner, it
becomes
a very unsettling film. Through its amazing sets the
film best
expresses
the insanity of its theme and the story only enhances
this as the
authorities
are shown to be either incompetent or uncaring, and
madness proves to
be
the staple psyche of the Germans at the time.

It was brought to America by Samuel Goldwyn in 1921
and
made an immediate
impression on certain knowledgeable film critics in
the U.S..

The odd twist the story takes just when you assume
that you
know
in which direction the film is going is when Cesare,
clad in all-black,
is ordered into the bedroom of Jane to knife her to
death but is
instead
attracted to her with thoughts of rape overcoming his
command to kill.
When she screams and awakens her household, he is
forced to kidnap her.
This is the story that the narrator is telling.

Francis is convinced that Caligari is behind these
crimes;
but since
he kept watch on him and had the doctor show him
Cesare in his cabinet
asleep, he has to admit that they did not leave their
quarters and
therefore,
he reasons, they couldn't have attacked Jane. It will
later turn out
that
there is a dummy in place of Cesare. But it is all so
confusing, that
the
possibility exists that the narrator is just making
this whole thing up.

It turns out there was a mountebank named
'Caligari,' in
1612, in
Italy, who had a somnambulist that he trained to
commit murder. This
asylum
director must have liked what he read about the evil
magician, as this
book is found in his desk. Francis discovers this
secret while visiting
the asylum and going through the director's books
while waiting for him
to return; and, when he sees who the director is he
becomes certain
that
is the lunatic doing all the killings.

The story remains purposefully unclear and bizarre.
In its
supposed
climax Caligari is put under restraint by the
orderlies, as Francis
tells
them his story and they find Cesare's dead body. But
the story doesn't
end on this note.

The reason for the confusion, is that the German
authorities interfered
with Robert Wiene's film. He was then forced to use a
different
beginning
and ending to his film, where the entire previous
message was reversed.
The government did not want a film with the message
that authority is
not
to be trusted.

This story is now viewed from the point of view of a
"framing device,"
as it appears that all that previously happened could
be derived from
the
narrator's deranged imagination.

Francis is now through telling his tale in the park
where
he sees
his girlfriend sleepwalking. Both men return to the
asylum where they
see
that Cesare is alive and that Dr. Caligari is coming
down the stairs,
and
Jane acts like a queen and refuses Francis' advances
by telling him
that
a queen can't follow the dictates of her heart when it
comes to
romance.
When Francis accuses Caligari of being the killer who
was in his
fantasy
the orderlies this time in the film's new climax,
restrain Francis in a
strait-jacket. The last chilling words that could be
coming from Dr.
Caligari,
might go loosely like this: Boy, have I got a cure for
you!

Caligari, however edited, is still a powerhouse of a
horror
film,
a significant breakthrough in style and in expression:
a poetical
vision.
Even in its altered story form, the film is still
spellbinding and
weird.
It is even possible to make a case for Francis being
the deranged
killer
of his best friend. In any case, we are left thinking
that either
Francis
or Caligari could be the lunatic killer. This note of
ambiguity,
instead
of spoiling the story, only adds further intrigue.
This unsettling tale
allows us to look at this story's skewed world without
knowing all the
answers. Though, we are left wondering if there could
ever be justice
in
this world, as corrupt powers always seem to have a
way of covering up
their misdeeds.